द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

192 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
not prepared to do—namely, to forgo the annual trip to
Geneva on the occasion of the International Labour Con-
ference. The Trade Union Congress passed a resolution
boycotting the International Labour Conference at Geneva
because the Conference had been of little help to the Indian
workers and the Indian representatives to that Conference
were appointed by the Government of India and not by the
All-India Trade Union Congress. This resolution, like the
one boycotting the Whitley Commission, was unacceptable
to the Right-Wingers and proved to be the proverbial last
straw.
It would have been in the fitness of things if a political
campaign had been launched in 1929. It would have then
synchronised with a movement in other spheres as well. But
that was not to be. So there was only marking time in
political circles. In Bengal, the Congress Party was able to
turn out the Ministers repeatedly. Disgusted with the
Party's tactics, the Governor dissolved the Legislative Council
in May and ordered a fresh election at once. The result was
that the Congress Party came back with added strength and
the Nationalist Moslems regained some of the seats they had
lost at the last election. Just before the election, judgment
was delivered in a suit brought against the Nationalist paper,
Forward, by the East Indian Railway¹ for defamation for
publishing reports damaging to the Company about a railway
accident near Calcutta. The court gave exemplary damages
to the tune of Rs. 150,000 (Rs. 13½=£1 approximately),
and it was expected that this would force the paper to close
down. However, the next day Forward ceased to appear, but
in its place another daily paper called Liberty was born.
The Congress Party did not therefore have to suffer any
inconvenience for want of an organ.
In June, the Labour Party came into power and Lord Irwin,
the Viceroy, was invited to London for consultation, where
he remained for some months. While he was there, a sudden
change came over the Mahatma. At a meeting of the Congress
Working Committee in July, a resolution was passed calling
¹ The East Indian Railway is a state-owned Railway and the most
important Railway in India.